IceCube Opens a Window to the Universe

We Study Cosmic Rays with IceTop

IceCube-Gen2 The Future

Overview of IceCube.

The IceCube Observatory at the geographical South Pole is
the main instrument I use to study neutrinos and cosmic
rays. It is comprised of two sub-detectors: IceCube and
IceTop. The former consists of a cubic kilometer of
antarctic ice instrumented with more than 5000 optical modules at
depths ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 kilometers from the surface
of the ice. The later is an array of 160 Ice Cherenkov
detectors located on the surface of the ice, right on top
of IceCube.

My Research Interests.

I study high energy cosmic rays. These are sub-atomic
particles that come from space and their energy can
be a million times the energies achieved at the
largest colliders, such as the LHC at CERN. In
every-day terms: the energy can be close to the
energy of a ball traveling at a speed of about 100
km/h. All concentrated in one subatomic particle!
I have done that for several years as member of
international collaborations such as IceCube and
Pierre Auger.

Cosmic Ray Composition.

I have been interested in the composition of cosmic
rays since I worked in the Pierre Auger
collaboration. The
composition of the very high energy cosmic ray flux
is extremely difficult to determine since we can not
detect the cosmic rays directly but by the air shower
they induce. We develop statistical methods to infer
the composition based on observable characteristics
of air showers.

IceCube-Gen2 Design.

I am particularly interested in the use of cosmic ray
air shower arrays for the detection of astrophysical
neutrinos. The main background in the search for
astrophysical neutrinos is the flux of atmospheric
muons and neutrinos. The identification of astrophysical
neutrinos is done by tagging the atmospheric
neutrinos/muons through the detection of the accompanying
air shower.

Air Shower Physics.

We rely on simulations of the air shower process in
order to study cosmic ray composition and to estimate
the brackground in the searches for astrophysical
neutrinos. Our lack of knowledge of interactions at
the highest energies can cause systematic deviations
that can affect our measurements. In order to reduce
these systematic effects, we develop methods to
cross-check the simulations with data.